Zero To A Hundred
by MaxGentlman1
Summary: "My name is Penn Zero, and I am the fastest man alive." Part of my DC AU series. Rated T for Violence and Mild Language.
1. Prologue

"The story that you're about to hear requires you to believe in the impossible. Forget everything you ever thought to be unthinkable and know that anything is possible. Believe me when I tell you this: My name is Penn Zero, and I am the fastest man alive.  
If you see a red streak pass by you while you're walking along the sidewalks of Middleburg, even for just a split second, that's me.  
It wasn't always like this however. Maybe I should start at the beginning, just so you don't get lost."

* * *

 **-14 Years Ago-**

"Move it, Boone!" Penn yelled as he and his friend, Boone Wiseman, a somewhat overweight boy wearing a green striped tank top and dark-green shorts and a backwards baseball cap, ran from the pack of bullies chasing after them.

"You just had to step in, didn't you?!" Boone yelled.

"What was I supposed to do? Just let them beat up that kid?" Penn asked.

"Yeah, probably!" Boone answered as they turned a corner only to find they ran into a dead end. Turning around, they looked to see the group of young bullies block their only other exit.

"Boone, if we die, I just want you to know you're my best friend." Penn said in slight panic.

"Penn, if we die, I just want you to know one thing: THIS IS ALL YOU'RE FAULT!" Boone yelled as their pursuers closed in on them.

As the two young boys closed their eyes and prepared for the beating of their young lives, they suddenly saw a small shadow pass over them. Before anyone knew what was happening, a small figure landed in front of the two boys and charged the bullies head-on. The figure elbowed the leader in the gut before delivering a hard roundhouse to his face. One of the other bullies tried to attack the figure but the figure grabbed him by the arm and flipped him over its head and onto his back. Before the third and final one could make sense of what was going on, the figure sweep kicked him onto his back before flipping over and delivering a powerful kick to his mid-section.

After a few seconds of silence had passed, the two boys opened their eyes to see the carnage the mysterious figure had wrought upon the group of ten-year-olds. They looked to the figure who stood in the center of the groaning pile. The figure wore a white hoodie that covered its face and most of its torso and a pair of white boots with a purple vertical stripe on the outer sides. But the one thing that completely stood out on its body was its mismatched, striped stockings, ones that Penn could recognize anywhere.

"Sashi?" He asked.

The figure stood silent for a moment before grabbing the sides of its hood and pulling it back, revealing a young Asian girl about their age. She wore a pair of clear, stylish glasses, had a tan complexion, and had her brunette hair up in a pair of short pony-tails.

"I see I still have to save your butts. Especially you, PZ." She said with a small smirk.

"Hey, we could've taken them." Penn said, trying to sound brave as the three left the way he and Boone came.

" _Sure,_ you looked like you could _completely_ handle it, what with the two of you cowering in fear." She said sarcastically.

"I, uh..." Penn tried to say but couldn't come up with a response, only looking down in slight sadness before Sashi playfully punched him in the arm.

"Oh, don't take it too hard, Penn. Why were they chasing you two anyway?" She asked, changing the subject (if only slightly).

"Penn stopped them from picking on another kid by throwing a rock at them to draw their attention. Unfortunately, their attention was also drawn to me so we both had to make a run for it." Boone explained.

Sashi laughed a little at the boys' misadventure, "Still trying to be a hero, huh Penn?" She asked with a soft smile.

Penn just smiled back as the trio continued on their path before arriving at Penn's house and going their separate ways. Penn got to the front door and opened it.

"Mom, dad, I'm home." He called out.

"Sweetie, I'm glad you got home alright." His mom, Vonnie Zero, said as she came out of the kitchen, drying her hands. She was a short-ish woman, only about five-and-a-half feet tall, with curly ginger hair, which is where her son gets it from.

"Hey sport, how was your day?" His dad, Brock Zero, said as he came to greet his son. He was a very strong-looking man, standing at six-foot-five-inches with short blonde hair and a beard that screamed "masculine".

"Had to run from a pack of bullies again." Penn answered.

"Ah, saved another first grader, eh?" Brock asked with a sly smile, happy that his son stood up for the smaller kids.

"Oh, my baby's a hero." Vonnie said, giving Penn a hug and kissing his cheek.

" _Mom._ " Penn groaned as he blushed in embarrassment at his mom's affection.

"Come on, Vonnie, let the kid go." Brock said jokingly.

"Okay," She said, giving Penn one last kiss on the forehead before standing straight again, "You two wash-up, dinner will be ready in just a little bit."

* * *

 **-8:30 PM-**

Penn was lying in his bed reading a copy of The Silver Shroud when a knock came from his door, "Come in," He called out as he put his comic down. Not a second later, his parents came in, "Hey, what's up?" He asked.

"Just came to wish you good night, son." Brock said as he stood next to Penn's bed and Vonnie sat down at the foot of it.

"We also just want you to know that we're proud of you for standing up against those bullies today." Vonnie said.

"Well it was either that or let that kid get beat up for milk money, so I had to do something. Besides, if it wasn't for Boone and Sashi by my side I would've been toast." Penn said, his voice full of modesty for his action.

"Well either way, we're proud, and as a bit of a reward, we were thinking of going to The Odyssey tomorrow to see that new western." Brock told him, Penn's eyes lightening with excitement at this revelation.

"Are you serious?!" He exclaimed, smiling from ear-to-ear.

"Heh, thought you'd like that." Vonnie giggled before giving her son a good night kiss, "Now get some sleep, hon."

"Okay mom." He said as he got underneath his covers and his parents left the room, turning the lights off and shutting the door.

* * *

Penn began to stir from his sleep. His eyes slowly opened and looked over to his alarm clock. "12:00 AM" it read; not even three hours later and he was awake.

 _'Why am I?'_ He thought, _'I mean I know I'm excited for tomorrow but that can't just be it.'_

He then moved his covers off him and got out of bed, deciding that some water will help. Not wanting to go down stairs in pitch black and not wanting to possibly wake his parents by turning on one of the lights, he walked over to the hallway bathroom. Turning on the lights and turning on the faucet, letting the cold water run for a second before taking a sip. When he brought his head back up, he looked at himself in the bathroom mirror, his curly red hair messier than usual, "his version of bed head" his mom would say.

He just smiled at his mom's words when he soon noticed something: a literal ball of water floating in front of him. He was completely confused by it until he looked down and found that the sink, which was still running, was flowing upwards, completely defying gravity. He then heard a small crash and a woman's scream coming from downstairs.

Running down the stairs to the living room, he found his mother on her knees, crying in fear as she was surrounded by what looked like a red and yellow cyclone.

"Penn, stay back!" She screamed.

"Mom! What's happening!?" Penn called out to her. Penn was soon joined by his father, who was just as confused by what was happening.

"Vonnie!" He called out to his wife as he grabbed Penn in an effort to protect him from whatever was attacking his mother.

As the two looked on in worry and fear, Penn could see inside the tornado, if only for a second, a man in yellow. In just a fraction of a second, he saw a man with burning red eyes wearing an all yellow costume.

Before he could do anything, Penn's father grabbed him by the shoulder, "Run, Penn, run!" He yelled before Penn saw a flash of yellow lightning and the next thing he new, he was outside, blocks away from his home.

"Mom? Dad?" He called out when he saw where he was. Quickly remembering what was going on, he began to run as fast as he could towards his home. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him and pushed himself to go faster. Unfortunately, it wasn't fast enough.

When he finally arrived back at his house nearly twenty minutes later, police cruisers were surrounding his house along with a small group of cops lining off the area with police tape. He stood at the edge of the tape when he saw his father being taken out the front door in handcuffs.

"Let go of me! I didn't kill her!" He yelled.

"Dad? Dad, what's going on?" Penn called to his father.

"Penn, stay back." Brock called back to his son.

"Dad, what happened? Where's mom?" Penn called out, beginning to worry.

"Stay back, kid." One officer told the young boy.

"What's going on?" Penn demanded.

When the cop remained silent, Penn ducked underneath the police tape and toward his home, the cop chasing after him. When he got inside and into the the living room however, he found his mother. Dead. She lay on the ground, a bloody wound in her chest and a knife lying next to her.

"Mom?" He said softly, his eyes beginning to tear up at the site before him.


	2. 14 Years Later

**-Present Day-**

Penn ran down the sidewalk as fast as he could. He couldn't believe that he was late. _Again!_ He turned the corner and finally arrived at his destination: Middleburg Central Bank. Police had taped off the area as officers were investigating the recently robbed bank.  
"Why was he here?" you ask? He was the forensics consultant. It was somewhat hard to believe that he would become a member of the force (More or less) after his father was arrested that night fourteen years ago.

After his father was arrested, Brock's brother and sister-in-law, Chuck and Rose, took Penn in and cared for the young boy. It was difficult for Penn, but he learned to cope with his loss. However, that didn't deter his efforts to prove that his father was innocent and didn't kill his mom. Since that night, he swore he would find the Man in Yellow.

Penn ran up to the crime scene where he saw his Uncle Chuck and Police Chief Folsom on the scene.

"Mr. Zero, you're late again." The chief scolded the young ginger like a school teacher would a student.

"Really sorry, sir, er, ma'am." Penn apologized awkwardly.

"This is the third time in the past week that you are late. The last time was particularly memorable. Remember? When you said that you had car troubles? Do you know _why_ it was memorable?" She asked, her voice condescending and full of sarcasm.

"Because I don't have a car?" Penn asked.

"Because you don't have a car." The chief repeated to get her point across.

"It wasn't his fault, Chief, he was running an errand for me." Chuck stepped in, defending his nephew, "Did you get what I asked for?" He asked Penn, who had a confused look on his face, not really knowing what Chuck was talking about. Chuck arched his eyebrow, signalling the young forensic scientist as to what the plan was.

"Oh, right, yeah, I have it right here." Penn said quickly as he dug through his pockets and pulled out a half-eaten chocolate bar and gave it to his uncle. Chuck and the chief just stared at him, Chuck in particular, his eyes silently saying "Seriously? This was the best you had on you?".

"I may have had a bit." Penn said, trying to make the two's lie more believable, only for an awkward silence to set in between the three.

"Penn." Chuck said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah?"

Chuck then motioned his head toward the crime scene and Penn immediately understood what he was getting at. Taking a pair of latex gloves from his bag, Penn put them on and began to go to work on the scene. There were tire marks in the asphalt, alternating treads.

"Who was the culprit and what was the vehicle's make and model?" Penn asked seriously. While usually having a pretty relaxed personality, Penn was pretty serious while on the job.

"It was a black Mustang; and it's 'culprits', plural." Chuck said.

"How many?"

"Two. It was the Chestnut Brothers, Robert and Peter." Folsom said.

"Wait, you mean the brother cops from the 23rd precinct?" Penn asked, familiar with the duo.

"Ex brother cops. They were fired after we found out they were dirty."

Penn was somewhat surprised at this news. It wasn't often they had dirty cops on the force. He expected that kind of stuff in Echo Creek, but not in Middleburg. As he continued to look at the scene, he found a small spot of what looked like dirt in the tire tracks. Penn looked through his pockets before going over to Chief Folsom and taking a pen from her breast pocket and using it to pick up a small sample of the dirt.

"Appears to be organic matter," Penn said, sniffing the substance and recoiled at the smell, "Fecal matter, most likely animal. My guess is fertilizer of some kind." Penn surmised before putting the pen in an evidence bag.

"That was my favorite pen, Zero." Folsom said in a low tone.

"Sorry, Ma'am." Penn said before turning to his uncle, "I'm gonna get this down to lab for analyses."

"Alright, I'll meet with ya later to see what you got." Chuck said before Penn left back to the station.

* * *

 **-Middleburg Police Station-**

The station was alive with activity as officers went about their usual routine of paperwork and booking criminals. Penn just made his way through the busy station to a stairway that led to the forensics lab. The lab was basically a loft in the station. It even had it's own skylight. When he arrived, he saw a young Asian woman looking though a microscope with the TV muted in the corner. She was a simple pink button-up shirt and white pants with her hair up in two ponytails with violet highlights in them. Penn did a subtle cough to get her attention. Looking up from the piece of lab equipment, she smiled when he saw him.

"Sup, Zero?" She said pleasantly.

"Not much. What are you looking at Karen?" He asked as he walked over to see for himself.

Karen Tehama, cousin to Penn's best friend Sashi and the police station's other forensics expert. While Penn and Sashi were in middle school, Karen and her folks came to visit over the Winter break. While she was visiting, she told them about how she was a member of her school's safety patrol and how she was the lead forensic scientist. She told the two about all sorts of wild cases that she had helped solve. It was a combination of these stories, Penn's love of science, and his yearn to solve his father's case that Penn became a forensic scientist.

When Karen graduated college, she moved to Middleburg permanently and joined up with the force. Although, when she arrived, she was surprised to hear that Sashi wasn't there anymore, apparently leaving the city two years prior and hasn't been heard from since. Her father had told everyone that she had just gone traveling, but it still bothered some people that she just disappeared like that, Penn especially.

"Just some sediment found at the scene of a break-in this morning. I think it's coal dust." She told the ginger scientist as he took a look for himself.

"Hmm, interesting. If you're done there, I got a bit of evidence from the bank job earlier today." Penn said.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Just some crap."

"Well any evidence is useful no matter how small or insignificant."

"No, I mean it's literal crap." Penn told her, taking out the evidence bag with the pen inside.

"Ew, gross dude." She laughed, giving him a light punch before taking the bag from him.

"I found it in a set of tire tracks at the scene. My guess is it's fertilizer." Penn explained, sitting against the desk as Karen took the pen from the bag and began to analyze the animal excrement in one of the sample scanners.

"Well I should be able to get the information we need fairly quickly." She said.

As she examined the fertilizer, Penn looked at the still muted TV and saw a crowd of people outside the S.T.A.R. Labs building, protesting. Wondering what was going on, Penn grabbed the remote and unmuted the small set.

"We are now continuing our live coverage of S.T.A.R. Labs as their soon-to-be active particle accelerator project has come under heavy protest from some of the citizens of Middleburg." The reporter spoke into the camera, "Even though they have come under heavy fire from the locals, both S.T.A.R. Labs and their parent company, Flynn Laboratories, have assured the people that the project is perfectly safe." The reporter finished before Penn muted the TV again.

"I don't know why people are so worried about this whole thing." He commented.

"I guess people are just afraid of what they don't understand." Karen answered, still looking at the fertilizer under her microscope.

"I know, but that's why they shouldn't fear it; the unknown." Penn returned with slight enthusiasm.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, look at this," Penn said, going over to a small whiteboard, grabbing one of the markers, and drawing a small dot in the center of the board, "Imagine that this is all that people know about science up until this point. This," He started again and drew a huge circle that was three-times the size around the dot, "Is everything we can possibly learn from the accelerator." He finished with a look of excitement evident on his face.

Karen just smirked at the ginger-haired boy as he acted like a child on Christmas, "Penn, I majored in law and minored in forensic science, not theoretical physics."

"Yeah, but still." Penn said bashfully, embarrassed of his little "nerd-out".

As he said that, a young man a couple years older than Penn stuck his head through the doorway. He had tan skin, dark black hair and was quite handsome.

"Hey, Karen, the sergeant wanted to know if you were done with that sample yet." He said.

"Yeah, here you go." She answered, handing the results of the tests to the young man before he left.

"Who was that?" Penn asked in slight confusion.

"Joseph Anza, the new transfer from Chicago." She said.

"Oh, so that's the 'Detective Pretty Boy' I've been hearing about." Penn said before getting a confused look from Karen, "What? It's what Uncle Chuck's been calling him."

Soon after that, Chuck walked into the doorway and knocked on the frame.

"Knock knock; mind if I come in?" He asked.

"Hey Chuck, you can come on in, we were just talking." Karen said pleasantly to the middle-aged man.

"It's good to see you, Karen. I came to see about that sample Penn took."

"Oh yeah, you're just on time, the computer just finished." Penn said as he sat down into a office chair and pulled up the results, "The sample I took was actually fertilizer but what was interesting was the computer found a trace amount of a type of antibiotic only used in a couple of farms in the area. Check them out and we should be able to find our bank-robbing brothers."

"Thanks Penn, you did good." Chuck said as he left, "Tell your aunt that I'll be home late tonight."

"You got it, Chuck." Penn replied as his uncle left before he grabbed his own jacket, saying goodbye to Karen before heading out himself.

* * *

 **-One Hour Later, S.T.A.R. Labs-**

While Penn had seen that the protesting of the particle accelerator was based on reasonable concern from the people of Middleburg, he wouldn't let it get in the way of being there when they turned it on. Penn walked into the huge crowd of people that gathered around the huge lab building to see the leading scientist, Dr. Jerry Driscol, address the reporters. Sure enough, the doctor walked onto the stage to the roar of the crowd of science enthusiasts. He waited for the cheering to die out before speaking.

"Good evening to you all; fans of science, reporters, and dreamers. Tonight, I hope to take a huge leap for not only the scientific community, but also the entire planet," He said, gaining some applause from the crowd, "I would like to thank not only my entire scientific staff but also all you out there who have helped us through both funding and mere words of encouragement. Now, if any of you have any questions, I will be glad to answer them." He finished before dozens of reporters raised their hands to try and get their queries answered.

As Penn watched the crowd, he noticed a man bump into one of the reporters before walking off. The reporter turned around and felt his pockets before yelling "My wallet's gone! That guy stole my wallet!".

Seeing this, Penn began to pursue the pickpocket. He ran after the man, cutting across the traffic and into an alleyway. The man turned into a dead end before turning around to see Penn.

"Alright listen, you have nowhere else to run. Just hand over the wallet you stole and you can just walk away. You don't have to go to jail." He said calmly as he inched toward the thief. The man began inching his way toward Penn as well, holding the wallet out to hand to him. Penn was about to take the wallet when the thief suddenly sucker punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground before running off the way he came. Penn got to his feet and tried to run after him but ended up losing him the moment he turned the corner.

He just let out a sigh in disappointment. Too slow, like always.

* * *

 **-Long Horn Cattle Ranch-**

"Nephew better be right about this."

"Don't worry, Phil. Penn may not seem like it, but he can do most anything when he puts his mind to it." Chuck said as he and his partner pulled up to the ranch.

"Better be right, this third ranch we been to." Phil complained, exiting the police cruiser and taking out his gun as they neared the ranch's barn, a rumble of thunder being heard in the distance as they did.

They slowly opened the large wooden door and entered the dark area. They kept their guns at the ready in case something were to happen. After a minute of searching, they lowered their weapons, figuring that nothing was there, only to be got of guard by a gun going off. Taking cover behind some hay bales, Chuck and Phil looked up at a rafter to see the older of the Chestnut brothers, Robert, behind a bit of cover with a pistol, laying down suppressing fire.

"You're not taking me in ya fossils!" He yelled as he replaced his gun's empty clip.

"Always were crap shot, Robert!" Phil yelled as he and Chuck took some shots of their own, missing the young thief before he leaped from the rafter and headed toward the door.

"Wish I could stick around, but I've got a flight to catch." Robert yelled before he kicked the barn doors open, revealing that it was now pouring rain and a small propeller plane rolled up in front of the barn.

"Come on, Robbie!" Robert's younger brother, Peter, yelled over the plane's engine and the storm. Robert quickly ran to the passenger-side door and hopped into his seat. Phil sprinted at the older brother, not wanting to let him get away. But as he grabbed him by the shoulder, Robert turned around and shot the old cop in the stomach, making him fall to the ground. Peter was shocked by the scene until Robert yelled at him.

"Snap out of it! Go, go, go!" He yelled, making the younger brother floor it and take off.

Chuck was stunned as he saw his partner take the bullet and fall to the ground. As the plane took off, he ran to Phil and rested his head on his lap, trying to nurse the wound as best he could, even though it was futile.

He looked at the plane as it ascended in the distance until some sort of red energy shock wave came from the city and a bolt of lightning struck the plane in mid-air, causing it to go down in a blazing fireball.

* * *

 **-Middleburg Police Station-**

Penn arrived back at the station mere minutes ago. He felt a mixture of sadness, depression, and self-loathing. He could've caught that guy, but like every other time in his life, he was too slow. He walked up the stairs and turned on the lights to the forensics lab; the place was deserted. He walked over to one of the desks and found a small post-it with his name on it written in pen.

"'Dear Penn, cleaned up for the most part. I know how you are with working late.  
Try not to fry your brain with another all-nighter. See you tomorrow.  
-Karen.'" He read aloud.

Penn just smiled at his friends note before tossing it away. He set his stuff down and went over to a board with a projector screen over it. He pulled on the screen's string, causing it to retract, revealing a pin-up board with a series of newspaper and internet articles that talked about his mother's murder and how his father was convicted and articles about strange occurrences, such as one article from about five or six years ago about a teenager in Norrisville rescuing a little girl from a gas station fire and coming out unscathed, and another from just last year about a vigilante in Mellowbrook who fought crime using a bow and arrow.

Ever since that night all those years ago, he has been hunting down the impossible, trying to prove his father's innocence and free him from prison. He was broken out of his thoughts when he heard thunder boom from overhead. He pulled the screen back over the pin-up board before going over to a chain pulley to close the skylight before the rain flooded the lab.

As he did this though, he saw a huge eruption of red light coming from the city, followed by a shock wave of red energy. He then looked to one of the chemical shelves to see the various liquids were floating in mid-air, completely defying gravity. He then looked above him to the skylight when he was suddenly struck by lightning. The force of the bolt sent him flying backwards and into the chemicals shelf, shattering beakers and knocking over the metal shelf over.

He twitched for just a moment before he fell limp, a spark of yellow lightning coursing up his hand and into his head.


	3. 5 Months Later

Darkness. All Penn could see after the bright flash of the lightning that struck him was darkness. He felt as if he were floating in some kind of black void; like he was swimming in ink. Any sounds that he could perceive were muffled or muted entirely.

As he floated in the black void, he remembered the events of the night fourteen years ago. His mom screaming. The tornado of red and yellow lightning. The man in the yellow suit. His father telling him to run. With a final scream from his mother, Penn felt a sudden pounding in his chest.

* * *

 **-STAR Labs, 5 Months Later-**

Two scientists, a tall red-haired woman in her mid-twenties and a medium-sized man in his early-twenties with a small amount of body fat, worked on the equipment that was hooked up to Penn as he lay in his unconscious state. The woman looked at the heart-rate monitor next to Penn's bed when suddenly, Penn shot up straight, gasping for air in a panic, heart monitors beeping rapidly. The two scientists ran to the sides of the bed and tried to carefully hold him down.

"Alright, Penn! Penn! Penn, just calm down!" The female scientist was saying before he managed to break free and fall to the lab floor, disconnecting some of the wires from his body.

"Alright, Penn, just calm down. Take some deep breaths. Breath." She continued, calming the redhead down as he leaned up against a counter and got back to his feet.

"W-where am I?" Penn asked, his voice shaky but calming down.

"You're at S.T.A.R. Labs, Penn, you were struck by lightning and have been in a coma for five months." The man said calmly.

Penn propped himself against the lab counter and looked at his surroundings before looking at the two scientists. He squinted his eyes slightly to focus but they then widened when they got a good look at the male scientist.

"Wait. Boone? Boone Wiseman?" Penn asked in slight surprise.

"I was wondering if you'd recognize me or not." Boone said with a slight smirk.

"Boone, I can't believe it's you!" Penn said with excitement, quickly walking over to the husky scientist and hugging his old friend. Sometime after graduating from high school, the two best friends ended up going to different universities and haven't seen each other since.

"It's so great to see you, man. Look at you, you've lost weight I see." Penn said happily, looking his old friend over.

"Yeah, I shaved off some L.B.'s since high school. You don't look half bad yourself, man." Boone commented.

"What do you mean?" Penn asked in slight confusion. Looking down, he noticed that he was shirtless and, what was more surprising, was that he was sporting a six-pack and pecs. He had the body of a professional athlete.

"... Did my coma give me abs?" He asked in silent disbelief.

"It's weird, but somehow your cells are regenerating themselves. Usually someone who's been in a coma for as long as you have would have their muscles be the portrait of atrophy. But somehow, yours are healing and even growing by themselves." The female scientist explained, examining the former coma patient.

"Uh, yeah, interesting, and you are...?" Penn asked in confusion at the scientist invading his personal space.

"Oh, Candace Flynn, Head Medical Expert." She introduced, shaking the young man's hand.

"Wait, Flynn? As in Phineas Flynn, head of Flynn Laboratories?" Penn asked.

"Oh, yeah, he's my brother." Candace said, kinda frowning at the mention of him, before walking over to one of the lab counters, writing stuff down on a clipboard. Penn scratched his head at her response before turning to Boone.

"What's up with her?" Penn asked Boone.

"Oh, she gets kinda annoyed whenever people kinda compare her to her brother. Plus, she's been like that since the accident with the accelerator."

"What happened?"

The room was silent for a moment at the asking of that question before Candace sighed and answered, simply saying "Jeremy".

"Who's Jeremy?"

"Jeremy Johnson." A voice came from the lab's doorway. The three turned around and found an older man in a lab coat with spiky black hair sitting in a wheelchair.

"Doctor Driscol?" Penn asked, surprised to see the famous scientist now bound to a wheelchair.

"I guess you're wondering what happened and why you're here?" He asked and Penn nodded, "Follow me, Mr. Zero." He said simply, turning his wheelchair around and leading Penn out of the room.

* * *

"You know I've always wanted to meet you face-to-face, sir." Penn said as he and Dr. Driscol walked down the lab's hallway.

"Well you most certainly went to great lengths to do so, Mr. Zero." Dr. Driscol joked slightly.

"So what exactly happened?" Penn asked, looking around and noticing that besides Boone, Candace, Dr. Driscol, and himself, no other people were walking around the building.

Dr. Driscol was silent for a moment before taking a deep breath and sighed, "The night of the Accelerator's activation was also the night of its destruction." He said before they came to a glass railing. When they stopped, Penn looked over the edge and was shocked to see the Accelerator was completely destroyed, blown-up like a burst pipe.

"Seventeen people died that night, hundreds more injured. Myself included." Dr. Driscol continued.

"What happened?" Penn asked in shocked curiosity.

"Five months ago the Particle Accelerator went online as planned... for forty-five minutes, before there was a system malfunction. The energy became almost immeasurable, the safety ring popped like a cork on a champagne bottle and the energy from the explosion was launched skyward, creating and seeding a storm cloud."

"Which created a lightning bolt... that struck me." Penn finished.

"Exactly," Dr. Driscol answered, "I was busy recovering myself when I heard about you. The hospital was undergoing strange blackouts whenever you were going into cardiac arrest which was, in fact, a misdiagnosis. In truth, you weren't going into arrest. In reality, your heart was actually beating so fast that the heart-rate monitors couldn't keep up, so it looked like you were flat-lining." He explained before they began moving again and they returned to the main lab area.

"Due to everything that had happened, I'm not the most popular person in the city. However, I was given permission by your Uncle Charles and Aunt Rose to bring you here, where we were able to stabilize you and see to it that you received proper treatment."

"Uncle Chuck?" Penn asked.

"Yes, he visited you often while you were unconscious." Dr. Driscol elucidated.

"He's a very nice guy." Candace added.

"Still talks a lot though." Boone said, adding his two cents.

"I have to go." Penn said, heading for the door.

"Wait, where are you going?" Dr. Driscol asked.

"I have to go see my family, tell them I'm okay."

"But you can't leave yet. You just woke up and we need to run tests to make sure you're alright." Boone said.

"I feel fine, don't worry. Thank you all, but I have to go." Penn said quickly before leaving, grabbing a taxi and heading to the police station to find Chuck.

* * *

Penn exited the cab and payed the driver before running up the steps of the police station. Even though he had been in a coma for five months, the station was just as he left it. Busy, loud, and crowded. He looked about the room and at the desks until he found his uncle talking with one of the other officers. Chuck turned slightly, noticing Penn and smiled broadly. He left the officer and quickly walked over and hugged his nephew tightly, happy to see he was okay.

"You had me worried there, kid." He said as he broke his embrace.

"Well I'll be sure to avoid any lightning bolts in the future." Penn replied sarcastically.

"Still a smart-ass, I see." Chuck joked, patting the young man on the back, "But hey, you're better. You hungry?"

"Yeah, a little."

"Well, come on, I'll call Rose and we'll get lunch." He said, leading Penn out of the station.


	4. Dine and Dash

"Oh, Penn, I'm so glad you're okay!" Rose exclaimed getting up from her booth when she saw Chuck and Penn walk through the front door of the diner.

"It's good to see you too, Aunt Rose," Penn said, giving her a small peck on the cheek before taking a seat.

Their lunch together wasn't anything special to anyone besides them. After five long months, they were once again together, talking, laughing, and Chuck filling Penn in on what's been going on in his absence. Apparently, a lot has happened.

Apparently, Karen had started going out with Joseph, and he was correct in his analysis and they found the Chestnuts. Unfortunately, their find ended in the death of Chuck's longtime partner, Phil, and the assignment of Joseph as his new partner. Needless to say, Penn was surprised at what he had missed during his absence.

They were just finishing up their lunch with Chuck paying the check, when Penn saw a waitress slip on a small puddle of water on the floor. She fell forward and dropped the plates, but to Penn's amazement, she was falling in slow motion! And it wasn't just her. He saw the entire diner slow to a crawl for what seemed like an eternity but in reality was half a second. He saw coffee being poured like it was molasses, a fly buzz by with it's wing beating once per second, and pancakes frozen mid-flip before everything sped up again and the plates crashed to the ground. Penn blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes in disbelief at what he saw.

"You guys see that?" He asked his aunt and uncle.

"Oh yes, poor thing," Rose said sadly at the waitress' misfortune.

"No, not that, the..." He trailed off as he began to realize something weird was going on.

"Sorry, Chuck, Rose, I have to go," He said quickly, getting up from the booth and heading toward the door.

"Wait, Penn, where are you going?" Rose asked.

"Something came up, sorry. I'll call you two later," He said quickly before he was out the door and running down the sidewalk in a hurry.

"Wonder what's gotten into him?" Chuck asked no-one in particular.

Penn was beginning to freak out as he ran down the sidewalk. His heart was racing and he barely felt the ground beneath his feet. Looking around him, he realized that everything was passing by him in the blink of an eye. Looking to his feet, he found them moving so fast they were a blur of motion.

He stopped running and skidded to a halt. Looking around, he was surprised to see that he was at Middleburg's city limits. He was surprised even more when he found that his clothes were burning up. Panicking, he quickly began to pat out the burning fabric until they were just smouldering with a couple of embers left.

He just looked down at himself in pure confusion and fear, no idea what was going on.

 _'What's happening to me?'_ He thought with worry.

* * *

 **A/N: I know it's a SUPER short chapter, but I just wanted to get this out there to show that I'm still working on this. Hope this wheted your appetite and I will try to get another chapter out sometime soon.  
**


	5. Running Start

A/N: **Sorry for taking so long to update. I really hope you all enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

 **-Diaz Tech Abandoned Airfield-**

"You don't actually believe he can run that fast, do you?" Candace asked, coming over to Dr. Driscol and handed him a coffee as he worked at a laptop.

"I'm willing to believe anything, Ms. Flynn. When this is over, maybe you will too," He said with a small smile. They were set up on a huge runway where all sorts of equipment was set up. Wind speed measures, vital sign monitoring equipment, and energy output monitors.

Boone walked up to a small van that they brought before knocking on the side, "How's it fit?" He called inside. A second later, Penn walked out of the van wearing a red spandex outfitwith black knee pads and a red helmet.

"It's a little snug," He quipped.

"Hey, look at it this way: You'll be moving so fast no one'll see you," Boone said with a pat on Penn's back before they started walking.

"See you thought the world was slowing down, but it wasn't. In reality, you were moving so fast that it only looked like the world was standing still," He said as they came to a stop, "Okay, so Dr. Driscol will be measuring your energy outputs while Candace will measure your vitals."

"What's your job?" Penn asked.

"Me? Man, I make the toys," He said with a smirk before going into his pockets and taking out a small device with a gold lightning bolt inside a gold ring on the side.

"This is a special two-way radio that I designed. I made it so it cancels out intense background noises in war zones. Or in your case, potential sonic booms," He said with a wide grin at the idea.

Penn smiled back as he took off his helmet and gave it to Boone before he went over to the equipment station so he could set up the earpiece. Candace came over and looked over the wires hooked up to Penn as he noticed the glum look on her face. Noticing this, Candace looked at him and asked "What?"

"Nothing. It's just that I noticed you don't really smile that much is all," He said carefully.

Candace fixed her hair a bit before answering, "My promising career as a bioengineer is over. My boss is in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. The explosion that put you in a coma also killed my fiance and the man I loved. So this little blank expression kinda feels like the way to go," She said with a mixture of sadness and mild anger before walking away.

Penn only got a few seconds to contemplate her words before Dr. Driscol came rolling up to him.

"Mr. Zero, while I am eager to witness the full range of your powers... I do caution restraint," He said.

Penn smiled a bit, "Will do, Doc."

Boone then came back and handed him the helmet back before he went over to the starting position that they had set up. Crouching down into a starting position, Penn looked back at the group for a moment, seeing Boone with a radar gun, Candace at the computer station, and Dr. Driscol giving him a thumbs up. He smiled a bit before looking forward. He began to feel an energy course through him. A powerful force that felt like lightning coursing through his system. It was like it was speed itself.

Boone took out a starting pistol while looking at the radar gun before firing. As soon as he heard the shot, Penn blasted forward with an audible BOOM! The wind from the take off was enough to blow Boone and a bunch of paper backwards. Getting up from where he fell over, Boone looked at his friend go and gave out a loud "Woo Whoo!" as he locked back onto Penn's position.

Candace was in absolute amazement as she watched the young ginger speed down the airstrip.

"He just passed 200 knots per hour!" Boone said with excitement.

"But that's... impossible," Candace said in utter disbelief. She couldn't believe her eyes, yet there he was, a man who can run as if he were a bullet.

Penn couldn't believe it. He was running faster than he could've ever thought possible... And he was loving it. The feeling of the wind rushing passed him, his feet lightly stepping on the ground one after the other, the energy he felt inside him. However, as he was going, his mind began to wander. Wander back to that night all those years ago. The tornado in his living room, the image of the Man In Yellow, the sound of his mother's screams.

He was broken from his thoughts when he hit a large crack in the airstrip and tripped. He hit the ground hard and started to roll head over heels before he rolled to a stop. He tried to get up when he felt a horrible pain in his left arm, causing him to recoil.

* * *

 **-Middleburg Central Bank-  
**

The bank was alive with business. Bank tellers tending to customers, people cashing and submitting their paychecks, and children setting up savings accounts with their parents.

"Next," One of the bank tellers called as the next customer came up to the counter before handing the teller a piece of paper. Curious, the teller took up the paper and read it.

"This is a robbery," He read, "Is this some kind of joke?" He asked the man in front of him. The man's eyes were covered by a baseball cap as he looked up slightly.

"Not in the slightest," He said simply as he took his hands out of his pockets. Suddenly, the doors blew open, letting in a huge gust of wind. The wind began to pick up to near tornado levels as thunder began to be heard from outside. Suddenly, the bank's skylight shattered as lightning struck the man's hands, yet it did him no harm. All he did was smile a horrible grin.

* * *

 **A/N: Hope you guys and gals enjoyed this chapter. Don't forget to leave a review. See you guys soon!**


	6. Reunions and Revelations

**A/N: Two chapters in two days. That's a new record for me I think. Hope you all enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

 **-STAR Labs-**

Penn sat on a medical bed as Candace showed him a tablet computer that had an X-Ray of an arm. His arm.

"It seems you had a severe distal radius fracture," She explained.

"Had?" Penn asked in confusion.

She then swiped it to the left to show a different X-Ray, this one completely healed.

"Now, it's completely healed. In three hours," She said with a hint of disbelief in her voice.

"But how's that possible?"

"We don't know. Not yet anyway," She said before going over to a work station as Boone came walking in with a busted helmet.

"You need to watch where you're going, dude," He said with a small smile when Dr. Driscol rolled in.

"What exactly happened out there today? You were doing pretty well and then something made you lose focus." He asked.

Penn was silent for a moment before he answered in a somber tone, "I started to remember something," He said sadly, "When I was ten, my mom was murdered." The news of this caused Candace to look up from her work with slight surprise and Boone to look up from fixing the two-way in the helmet.

"It was late. I was getting some water when I started hearing a noise. I came downstairs and..." He paused, it being hard for him to remember, "I saw what looked like a tornado. Inside the tornado... there was a man. He killed my mom. They arrested my dad. He's still sitting in Iron Heights for her murder," He said, wiping a small tear from his eye at the thoughts, "Everyone, the cops, the shrinks, they all told me what I saw was impossible. A total improbability. But when I was running, I realized something. What if the man who killed my mom was like me?"

A silence fell in the room after Penn's story. Boone looked sad at the reminder of his old friend's past and Candace looked down at the very idea of losing their parents at such a young age. Dr. Driscol took off his glasses for moment and wiped his eyes before replacing them and spoke.

"I believe that I can say without a doubt, you are one of a kind, Mr. Zero."

* * *

 **-Middleburg Central Police Station-**

The station was alive with work after the destructive bank robbery that had happened not three hours ago. Detectives were talking with witnesses, all telling the same story of how a man walked into the bank and suddenly, a freak storm blew in. Outside became inside.

"Third robbery in the past month where a freak storm precedes it. It sounds like one of Penn's 'Ripley's Believe It or Nots' that he's obsessed with," Joseph said as he and Chuck went through the station.

"Hey now, he's not obsessed," Chuck said.

"I take it you haven't read his blog," Joseph answered back with a small smirk.

"Get anything from the security cameras at the bank?" Chuck asked, wanting to change the subject.

"Apparently they all shorted out."

"Well we got a bunch of witnesses here. They all have cell phones," Chuck said as if it were obvious.

After getting the footage from the witnesses, Chuck began to look over the various videos. He finally got one that had decent quality and luckily, it got video of the man leaving the bank and getting into a car.

"Perp is driving a black Mustang. Partial license plate number: Six-Kilo-Charlie-Three. Get an APB out on it," Chuck said, his game face on.

"Copy that," One of the cops said.

* * *

 **-Jitter's Coffee-**

After getting the okay to leave after getting a clean bill of health from Candace, Penn left and just began wandering through the city. He soon came to a coffee shop that he hadn't visited in the months he's been in a coma. As he entered, he got in line and it soon came to be his turn.

"Welcome to Jitter's, can I take your order?" A female voice asked in a bored tone.

Not looking down, Penn placed his order, "Sure, I'll have a caramel machiado."

"Can I get your name?" She asked.

"Yeah, it's, uh, Penn Zero," He answered.

The clerk froze as soon as she heard his name and looked up from writing his name down.

"PZ?" She asked.

Now it was Penn's turn to freeze as he heard a nickname he hasn't heard for years. He looked down and finally got a look at the clerk. She was a young Asian woman in her early twenties with black hair that was tied in two ponytails with highlights at the end. She was wearing a purple dress shirt and a white apron with a purple skirt with a pair of mismatched stockings that he would recognize anywhere.

"Sashi?" He asked in total disbelief, "I can't believe it's you!" He said with a huge smile on his face.

"Hey, Jerry, I'm going on break!" She called behind her before taking off her apron and vaulting over the counter and hugging her old friend. Penn was surprised by the physical contact and blushed slightly but tried to not act flustered.

"Come on, we need to talk," She said, pulling him by his arm and out of the coffee shop.

* * *

The duo began walking along the city sidewalks, talking about all that's happened since they last met.

"So you're working with Karen? How is she, by the way?" She asked.

"Doing well actually. Dating a guy at the precinct," Penn answered.

"That's nice I suppose. And what about your dad?" She asked.

At the mention of his father, Penn went silent and his face grew sad. Noticing this, Sashi knew she made a wrong move.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry," She said.

"No, no, it's fine Sash, you didn't know. But yeah, he's still in prison. But I think I may have found a new lead," Penn said, his face growing determined.

"Glad to hear it, PZ. By the way, if you aren't busy, maybe we can continue this sometime. Maybe over dinner?" She said sheepishly.

"Sashi Kobayashi, are you asking me out on a date?" He said in a mix of both mock and actual surprise, which earned him a light punch to the arm.

"You never change, PZ. And don't you," She said as the both of them laughed.

However, their laughter was short lived when Penn heard the sound of sirens and car engines approaching. Turning around, the world began slowing down as he saw a police cruiser swerve out of control while chasing a black Mustang, headed right for them. Acting fast, he grabbed Sashi by the shoulders and jumped out of the way as the cruiser crashed into a light post. Looking up, Penn saw the driver of the car and couldn't believe his eyes. The driver was Robert Chestnut.

 _'But how's that possible? He's supposed to be dead.'_ He thought as the world came back up to speed and the car sped away.

Acting quickly, Penn got back to his feet and started running at Super Speed. Looking up, Sashi found herself alone.

"Penn?" She called out.

Penn sped down the street before coming up next to the Mustang. In less than a second, he smashed the window open, unlocked the door, opened it, and got into the passenger's seat. Robert looked to his right in confusion to find Penn sitting there. He reached for a gun that he had tucked in his jeans when Penn quickly grabbed the steering wheel and jerked it his way, causing the car to flip over itself.

As soon as the car stopped moving, Penn opened his now overturned car door and crawled out of the wrecked vehicle to see Robert walking away.

"Hey, Chestnut!" He yelled after him, causing the ex-cop to turn around. Rather than say anything, Robert put his hands out to his sides and, all of a sudden, a thick fog began to envelope the entire area. As soon as the fog was thick enough that you could basically chew it, Robert simply slipped into the mist and disappeared. Before Penn could go after the criminal, a car suddenly crashed into the overturned mustang. Thinking fast, Penn ran out of the way as it came crashing nose-first into the pavement.

* * *

Soon after that whole debacle, emergency services arrived on the scene. Unfortunately, they were too late to save the man in the car, who died in the crash. Penn watched as the paramedics carted off the body bag when a voice called out.

"Penn!" Sashi called out. Penn turned around to be met with a tackling hug from Sashi.

"Penn, I was so worried," She said before backing away and punching him hard in the shoulder.

"Ow!" Penn exclaimed.

"What happened? Where were you?" She asked, her voice full of anger and worry.

"Relax, I was trying to get the license plate number on that Mustang," Penn lied.

"Penn!" He heard another voice call out. Turning around, he found his Uncle Chuck running up to him.

"You okay there, Penn?" He asked with concern, "And who is this?" He asked, looking at Sashi.

"Uncle Chuck, you remember Sashi. Sashi, Uncle Chuck," Penn said, reintroducing the two.

"Oh wow, Sashi, it's been years. How've you been?" He asked pleasantly.

"Oh you know, just been traveling to places, had ups and downs."

"Hey, Uncle Chuck, can I talk to you please?" Penn asked.

"I'm sure it can wait, Penn."

"No, now, it's important," Penn said in a slightly impatient tone. Noticing his nephew's tone, Chuck followed the younger man over to the side where they could talk in private.

"Alright, what is it Pensacola?" Chuck asked.

"Listen, I saw who did all this. It was Robert Chestnut. Yes, I know he supposedly died in that place crash when the accelerator blew up, but I know what I saw." He said, "I think he has the ability to control the weather. All the recent robberies, they've all happened during freak meteorological events. When I tried going after him, he made that thick fog appear out of nowhere."

Chuck just looked at his nephew before rubbing his eyes a bit.

"You don't believe me, do you? Ofcourse you don't. You never believe me."

"Okay, Penn, you wanna do this now? Robert Chestnut is dead, okay? There is no controlling the weather, Penn, just like how there's no lightning storm in your house that night. It was your brain helping a scared little boy help cope with what he just saw."

"My dad didn't murder-"

"Yes, he did! Your dad, my brother, killed your mother, Penn, and I am sorry, okay? But I knew it, the jury knew it, now he's paying for what he's done... So stop thinking about the impossible, Penn, because that's what it is: Impossible."

Penn was silent for a few moments before he walked passed Chuck and passed Sashi, leaving the older man letting out a sigh at what he just said. Suddenly, Joseph came up holding a piece of paper.

"Just got this from the sketch artist," He said, handing him the piece of paper,"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that it was Robert Chestnut, but he's dead, right?"

Surely enough, the sketch did in fact look just like Robert Chestnut. Chuck couldn't believe his eyes as he looked at the piece of paper before looking in the direction of where Penn left.

* * *

 **-STAR Labs-**

Boone, Candace, and Dr. Driscol were working around the lab when, all of a sudden, Penn came walking into the room with a look of both anger on his face.

"There's something you're not telling me. I wasn't the only one effected by that particle accelerator explosion, was I?" He demanded.

The trio of scientists looked at each other for a moment before Dr. Driscol spoke.

"We're not sure," He said.

"You said their was no residual danger, that the city was safe," Penn said angrily, "But that's not true, so what really happened that night?"

Dr. Driscol was silent for a moment before looking down,"The accelerator went active. We all felt on top of the world, and then..." He said, tapping a few keys on a keyboard and pulling up a 3D animation on a large monitor of the Particle Accelerator, "It all went wrong," He said, the animation showing two atoms colliding together and causing an explosion, "A dimensional barrier ruptured, unleashing unknown energies into our world. Antimatter, Dark Energy, X-Elements."

"But those are all theoretical," Penn interrupted.

"And how theoretical are you?" He asked.

"We mapped the dispersion throughout and around Middleburg, though we have no way of knowing what or _who_ was exposed. We've been searching for other Meta-Humans like you," He said, Penn looking at him in confusion.

"Meta-Humans?"

"That's what we're calling them, bro," Boone said.

"Yeah? Well I saw one today. He's an dirty ex-cop and a bank robber and he can control the weather," Penn said, anger clear in his voice.

"Whoa, that is _so_ cool," Boone said with a small grin.

"This is in no way cool, Boone! A man died because of him!" Penn yelled in frustration before looking back to Driscol, "Chestnut must've gotten his powers the same way I did. From the storm cloud. He's still out there somewhere! We have to stop him before he hurts anyone else." He finished before heading towards the door.

"Penn," Driscol called after him, making him stop, "That's a job for the police."

"Yeah, and I work for the police."

"Yes, as a forensic assistant," Driscol retorted, Penn getting angrier.

"You're responsible for this, Dr. Driscol. For this and for him."

"What's important is you!" Driscol yelled, catching Penn slightly off guard, "Not me. I lost everything. I lost my company; my reputation. I lost my freedom," He said, clenching his fist, "And then you break your arm, and it heals in less than three hours. Inside your body could be a map to a whole new world, Penn. Genetic therapies, vaccines, medicines, treasures buried deep within your cells. And we CANNOT risk losing all that because you wanted to go out and play hero," He said loudly, borderline yelling, "You're not a hero, Penn. You're just a man who was struck by lightning.

Everything was silent for a few moments as everyone processed what Dr. Driscol said. Penn was the first to act as he turned around and left, leaving the trio of scientists alone.

* * *

 **A/N: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review. Any words of encouragement, critiques, or anything would help me greatly.**


	7. New Beginnings

**Welcome one and all to the next chapter of Zero To A Hundred! I deeply apologize for the long delay, I've been busy with other projects. If you look carefully, you may see an Easter Egg for a possible upcoming project. Anyway, here's the next chapter.**

* * *

Penn was walking down the sidewalk of midtown Middleburg, processing what Dr. Driscol had told him. Was it true? Was he just a man who was struck by lightning? Was he not a hero? All these questions buzzed in his head to no end. It was maddening is what it was. All these thoughts came to a halt as he came to a news stand. He looked at all the different newspapers that lined the walls of the stand. There was The Danville Times, The Echo Creek Daily, The Norrisville Chronicle, and of course, The Middleburg Gazette. His eyes were drawn to the Gazette as he read that day's headlines.

"Freak Weather Occurs During Bank Robbery" it read.

Penn couldn't help but feel powerless as he read the story of how Chestnut was terrorizing the city with his freak powers and there he was, unable to do anything about it. He felt absolutely terrible that he was unable to do anything. That was until the other papers caught his eye. More specifically, The Echo Creek Daily and The Norrisville Chronicle.

Moving some other papers aside, he used his powers to speed read through the front page articles and he couldn't believe what he was reading.

" _Superman Saves City Once Again? Batman Strikes Back At Echo Creek's Underworld?_ " He read to himself. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe that there were other people out there just like him. Not just with powers, but a want to do what was right. A yearn to help those in need.

It was there that he knew what he had to do. If there were people out there who could save their cities, than he was gonna be one of them.

* * *

 **-S.T.A.R. Labs-**

After the argument that sent Penn away, Boone could do nothing else but occupy his time with his work. He had never seen Penn nor Dr. Driscol that upset before. It was certainly a hell of an argument.

He was putting the finishing touches on a new invention that he had been working on when he heard a knock at his lab door. Quickly putting his invention in a metal case and putting it away, Boone turned toward the door.

"Come in," He called as the door slid open.

"Cool, just like on Star Trek," Penn said as he entered the room.

"Oh, Penn, good to see you. Yeah, I was pretty impressed with the doors too. Though don't stand in the doorway too long, they close automatically."

"Hey Boone. Listen, I know what Dr. Driscol said, about me not going after Chestnut. But I been having this feeling, like I need to go after him. I have these powers and all, but I know that I can't do this alone. What I'm saying is-"

"You need my help?" Boone cut in.

"Exactly."

Boone put his hand to his chin and scratched it a bit before he answered, "Penn, you and me have been friends since we were five. There's no way I'm leaving you hanging when you need help the most," He said with a sincere smile.

"But what about what Dr. Driscol said?" Penn asked.

"Forget what he said, man. The city's in danger, a guy with super powers is attacking it, and you have the power to stop him. This is a situation right out of the comic books we used to read, dude!" Boone said excitedly.

"Well what am I gonna do? I'm not The Silver Shroud or La Fantoma. How am I gonna stop Chestnut?"

"Take the advice of all the other caped crusaders out there, Penn," Came a voice from the doorway. Turning around, they found Candace standing there.

"And what advice is that?" Penn asked.

A smile grew on Candace's face as she spoke, "Wear a mask."

* * *

Boone led Penn and Candace through the hallways of S.T.A.R Labs before coming to another sliding door. Boone spoke as he typed a code onto a keypad, "If we're gonna do this, I got something that might help," He said as the door opened upon typing in the last digit.

"That never gets old," Penn thought aloud.

"I've been working on this suit for a few months now," Boone said, spinning an upright table around and revealing a red full body suit that had pads of reinforced lining in the shoulders, pecs, and abs, "It's designed to replace firefighter uniforms. I figured if S.T.A.R. Labs could do something for the community, they wouldn't want to lynch us anymore."

"Okay, so how's it gonna help me?" Penn asked, inspecting the suit.

"It's made of a reinforced tri-polymer. It's heat and abrasive resistant so it should withstand you going at hyper-sonic speeds, and the aerodynamic design should help you maintain control. Plus, the built-in sensors will allow us to keep track of your vitals and keep in contact with you."

"Okay, that's great and all, but how do we find Chestnut?" Penn asked before Candace spoke up, holding a tablet computer.

"As a matter of fact, I re-tasked the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite to track weather abnormalities. We just got a ping," She said, showing the two men where the weather was coming from, "I managed to track an atmospheric drop to a small farm just west of Middleburg."

Hearing this, Penn turned to the suit.

"I've always wanted to say this. It's time to suit up!"

* * *

 **-Long Horn Cattle Ranch-**

What Penn didn't know, however, was that Chuck and Joseph were already at the farm, betting on a hunch that Chuck had.

"What makes you think Chestnut is hiding out here?" Joseph asked, pulling his gun from his holster and having it at the ready just in case.

"This was the last known hideout that those two used," Chuck said, "If we're hunting them down, this is our best bet to start looking."

Cracking the barn door open until it was wide enough to walk through, Chuck and Joseph walked in with flashlights in hand and their guns at the ready.

They looked about the dilapidated barn, searching for any immediate signs of the two brothers. What they found was Robert Chestnut himself, sitting alone in the dark, his back turned to the two cops.

The two detectives raised their weapons and aimed them right at Robert, who didn't seem to even react to having the weapons aimed at him.

"Robert Chestnut, you're under arrest for robbing the Middleburg Central Bank and one count of murdering a police officer," Joseph said in a commanding tone, his gun sights never leaving Robert's head.

"You got me. Heh," Robert chuckled as Chuck approached with a pair of handcuffs, "That night, during the storm, when S.T.A.R. Labs blew... After the plane went down, and I woke up on the cold, wet ground, somehow alive... When I saw what I could do... I understood. I'm a god."

"Get up and shut up, Chestnut," Joseph said, his gun still aimed at Robert.

As Robert got to his feet, his hands up and turning around to face the two detectives, a smirk began to form on his lips. Before either of them new what happened, Robert threw his hands forward, a huge gust of wind blasting the two detectives backwards like an air cannon. Chuck landed in a hay bale while Joseph landed against a support beam, hitting his head and knocking him out.

"Do you think your guns can take out a god?!" Robert yelled over the howling winds that began to pick up inside the barn.

"Why would a god need to rob banks?!" Chuck yelled back.

"You're right. I've been thinking to small," Robert said.

Before Chuck new it, the wind began to pick up even more and began to tear the walls of the barn apart. Before his very eyes, a full on tornado was forming. Grabbing the injured Joseph, Chuck rushed out of the barn only to be thrown into the car by the increasing wind speed. Turning around, he saw the barn break apart into shrapnel and splinters. He saw a large chunk of the barn heading right towards him and Joseph. Closing his eyes, he suddenly felt a hard force grab him around the waist and a gust of wind that was different from the tornado winds.

Opening his eyes, chuck looked up to find a man in an all red suit standing above him, looking at the tornado that was raging about twenty feet away now.

" _Penn, we got a problem,_ " Boone said over an earpiece in Penn's ear, " _That wind is clocking in at 200 miles per hour, getting faster, and is headed right for Middleburg,_ " He said, though not getting an immediate response from Penn, " _Penn, can you hear me?_ "

"Yeah, I can hear you loud and clear, Boone!" Penn yelled over the roar of the wind.

" _If this keeps up, this could become a category 5 tornado, dude._ "

"How do I stop it?!" Penn asked, not getting a response from either Boone nor Candace on the other end. He thought through possible scenarios before he came up with one, "What if I unravel it?" He asked.

" _How the hell do you plan on doing that?_ " Candace asked.

"I'll run around it in the opposite direction. Cut off its legs."

"He'd have to run over 700 miles per hour," Boone said to Candace.

" _Your body might not be able to handle those speeds, Penn. You could die,_ " Candace said with a hint of worry in her voice.

Penn was silent for a few seconds as he looked at the raging tornado that was growing ever stronger and ever closer to his home city. Looking down at Chuck and the awestruck look on his face, Penn hardened his resolve.

"I have to try," He said finally before getting into a starting position and taking off like a rocket, creating a gust of wind. Chuck's mouth was agape as he saw the man in red run like the wind as a ring of yellow lightning began to encircle the twister.

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Boone and Candace were watching the monitors as they saw a 3D model of Penn and the tornado.

"The suit's holding up," Boone said.

"But Penn isn't," Candace countered, biting her thumb with worry.

"He can do it. I know he can," Boone counter-countered, his voice full of confidence for his friend.

Inside the cyclone, Robert saw a red streak begin to circle him. Focusing his powers, he created a huge gust of wind, knocking Penn off his feet and sending him flying ten feet before he corrected himself in midair and skidded to a halt on his feet.

"Guys, I can't stop it! It's to strong!" He said over the comm link.

In the tornado, Chestnut was beginning to release even more of his powers, fueled by newfound megalomania.

"Time to think big," He said to himself, yelling as he focused more and more of his power into the ever-growing storm.

"I can't do this guys," Penn said in defeat, "Driscol was right. I'm not a hero."

Everyone on the comm link was silent before someone spoke up.

"No, you CAN do this, Penn," The voice said. Turning around, Boone and Candace were surprised to find Dr. Driscol sitting beside them, speaking into the comm.

"You were right from the start, Penn. I am responsible for this. All of this. So many people have been hurt because of me and my arrogance. When I looked at you, all I saw was another potential victim. Yes, I created this chaos, but you, Penn, can stop it. You can do this. Now run, Penn. RUN!"

Like a bolt of lightning, Penn rocketed forward and once again began to circle the cyclone in the opposite direction. He began to pick up speed, running faster and faster, gaining more and more momentum as he went. Robert looked around him as he watched Penn circle him. He tried blasting Penn with another gale force wind, but Penn was too fast to get a proper hit in.

As he began approaching the required speed, Penn began to feel the strain that running at that speed was causing him. He began to groan in pain before full on yelling as he hit 700 miles per hour and the tornado dissipated with a loud crack of thunder, sending him flying a few feet, tumbling over himself as he hit the ground hard. He coughed up some dirt dust that had accumulated in the air from the raging storm that was going on not moments ago.

As he coughed, he pulled back the cowl the covered face. Not a second later he heard the hammer being pulled back on a gun. Looking up, he saw Robert aiming a revolver right at him.

"I never thought there was anyone else like me," He said.

"I'm nothing like you, Chestnut. You're a crook and a killer," Penn replied.

Robert just smirked at Penn's response. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, a gunshot rang out from behind Penn and hit Robert dead in the chest, surprising both Meta Humans as two more shots were fired into Robert's chest before he coughed up some blood and fell to the ground. Dead.

Turning around, Penn found Chuck standing behind him, his gun barrel smoking from the shots that he had fired. Suddenly, Penn's comm link crackled to life.

" _Penn, can you hear us? Is everything okay?_ " Candace asked over the comm.

Penn was silent for a moment as he looked at Chuck before answering.

"Everything's fine. It's over," He said as Dr. Driscol, Boone, and Candace breathed a sigh of relief.

As this happened, Chuck holstered his gun as he walked up to Penn, a look that was a mixture of confusion and shock on his face.

"Guess I've got some explaining to do, huh?" Penn asked with a slight grin as he looked at his uncle.

* * *

 **-Long Horn Ranch, 7:30 AM-**

The police and emergency units arrived early in the morning, surprised by the damage done to the barn upon their arrival. As they put Robert in a body bag and treated the injured Joseph, Chuck and Penn stood off to the side, silently watching the whole scene take place. Soon though, Chuck spoke up, voicing his thoughts.

"So what you can do... It was because of the lightning?" He asked.

"... More or less," Penn responded halfheartedly.

Chuck was silent for a moment as he processed this before speaking once again.

"I'm sorry, Penn. I'm sorry for not believing you all these years," He said sadly, "I called you crazy for chasing the impossible... But you really did see something that night... And your dad is innocent."

He then got in front of Penn and looked him dead in the eyes, "I promise you, Penn, that we will get your dad out of prison. I swear on my life," He said as he brought Penn into a hug, which Penn reciprocated.

* * *

 **-Iron Heights Criminal Penitentiary-**

Penn sat in the visiting area of the prison, waiting to see the person he came here for. Soon, a man with a thick beard sat down in the chair behind the glass wal, picking up the telephone that connected to Penn's side of the glass. Penn did the same and the two of them sat in silence for a second before the man spoke.

"Hey there, kid," He said with a small smile, which Penn returned.

"Hey, dad," Penn said in a sad tone.

"So how have you been holding up, champ?" His dad asked.

"You've been calling me nicknames like champ, sport, and slugger since I was a kid," Penn said with a small chuckle, "But the funny thing is, I actually did get into a fight today."

"You just got out of a coma, Penn. I don't think you should be picking fights," Brock said with a small smile, to which Penn grinned, "Did you win?"

"Yeah, I did," He said, making Brock give a light chuckle.

Penn was silent for a moment as tear began to leak from his eyes before he spoke again, "You didn't kill mom. You know that I know that, right?" He asked.

Brock was silent for a second as he took in his son's words and smiled, "You believing me is all I need, Penn."

"... You're not gonna be in here for much longer, dad. Whoever... Whatever killed mom... I think I finally have a way to find them and stop them."

"Penn, we've talked about this. It's time to let it go. It's time to stop worrying about me. Live your life."

Penn smiled at this, "For the first time... I feel like I finally can," He said.

"The truth is ever since the night mom died, I've been stuck on treadmill, going nowhere. I've missed out on so much. But I'm different now. I've made new friends who're helping me find my way. Helping me finally move forward," He said, on the verge of tears, "Remember when you wanted me to change my name to something else so that I wouldn't be associated with you? Well I'm glad that people know that I'm your son. Because I'm proud to be your son."

There was a small silence after Penn's speech as a small smile grew on Brock's face.

"I love you, son," Was all he said.

"I love you to, dad," Penn said in return, small tears escaping his tear ducts, wanting desperately to give his father a hug to show how much he loved him.

" _My name is Penn Zero... and I am the fastest man alive. I don't know what the future may bring. But whether a person is in danger, or the very city is at stake, I will be there... in a flash."_

* * *

 **-Midtown Middleburg, 8:00 PM-  
**

Candace walked down the streetlamp-bathed sidewalk, on her way home from the long day she had at S.T.A.R. Labs. Just as she was turning a corner however, a man ran up passed her and snatched her purse from around her arm.

"Hey, get back here!" Candace yelled as she tried running after the purse snatcher.

She tried desperately to catch up, but couldn't. Just as he was about to make a clean getaway, what looked to be a metal baton flew from out of an alleyway and slammed into the purse snatcher's legs, tripping him up.

Stopping in her tracks, Candace then saw what looked to be a blonde-haired woman run out of the alley and proceed to beat the crook with a second baton. After severely bludgeoning the purse snatcher, the woman turned to Candace, showing that she was wearing a domino mask over her eyes. Picking up the baton that she threw, the woman used her baton to pick up Candace's purse by the handle and threw it over to her, not saying a word as she did so.

Candace looked down at her purse and checked its contents to find everything was still there, "Thank you," she said, looking up to find that the blonde-haired woman was now nowhere to be found.

* * *

 **What lies in store for our hero? What challenges will he face? Who is this strange blonde-haired vigilante? Find out next time in Zero To A Hundred!**


	8. Chilly Outside

**Welcome one and all to the next chapter of Zero To A Hundred. This is actually a story line I've been wanting to do from the start of this story. Hopefully you all enjoy.**

* * *

 _"My name is Penn Zero. Currently, I'm going over 350 miles per hour on my way to a fire in downtown Middleburg. And this is what I now consider a slow day."_

As Penn ran down the streets of Middleburg, suited up in his red outfit, a voice came in through a comm link in Penn's ear.

"Penn, you read me?" Boone's voice came through the earpiece.

"Yeah, Boone, what up?" Penn responded.

"You missed your target. Overshot it by, like, six blocks," Boone answered back from the control room in S.T.A.R. Labs, slurping a soda.

"My bad," Penn responded with a small smile, skidding to a halt as he turned around and ran in the opposite direction.

On the scene of the fire, a group of the people who managed to escape the fire were waiting for the fire department to show up. However, one woman was still worrying despite herself being safe from the blaze.

"Alese? Where's Alese?" She asked around the crowd.

Suddenly, the crowd felt a powerful gust of wind pass by them. Inside the burning building, Penn stopped as he surveyed the situation.

Meanwhile, at S.T.A.R. Labs, Boone was watching the whole thing play out on the monitors.

"How you doing, man?" He asked over the earpiece.

"What are you doing?" A voice asked from behind as Boone quickly shut off all the monitors and turned around to see Candace.

"Nothing," He said quickly.

"Were you talking to Penn?"

"Who?"

"Penn Zero? You know? The guy who got struck by lightning, fell into a coma, woke up with super speed, and, oh yeah, your best friend."

"No idea who you mean," Boone lied terribly.

"Boone, there's fire everywhere!" Penn yelled over the speaker on the computer. Boone looked at Candace with an awkward smile.

Back with the action, Penn heard a sort of crying, like that of a small girl.

"Mommy? Mommy, I'm scared!" The girl cried.

Turning around, Penn saw a little girl no older than five crying in the middle of the burning hallway. Acting as quick as a whip, Penn sped forward and picked up the young girl and sped out of the burning building, dropping her off in the crowd outside, where her mother found her.

Speeding back into the inferno, he sped through every floor of the building, inspecting every room, finding anyone and everyone who was still trapped inside. He found two more people still inside and sped them outside to safety. After giving the building another once over, Penn sped out of there just as the fire department arrived on the scene. Running a few blocks and stopping in a back alley, Penn removed his mask and spoke into his earpiece.

"Everyone's out, Boone. What else you got for me?" He asked with a smile.

"Penn, it's Candace," She said into the microphone, Penn's smile fading immediately.

"Heeeey, Candace. How are you?" He asked awkwardly.

"Get back here. Now," She said sternly like a mother to a child.

"Yes, ma'am," He said, slightly intimidated by the woman.

Just as he was about to start running, he began to feel weak, faint even. Like he was a car running on fumes. The feeling passed however and he righted himself before speeding back to S.T.A.R. Labs.

* * *

 **-Five Minutes Later-**

"What exactly were you two thinking?" Candace asked sternly as they stood before her like a pair of students before a crossed teacher.

"Well we were thinking that I'd be the eyes and ears and he's, well, the legs," Boone explained like it was no big deal.

"This isn't a joke, Boone. Penn, you could've gotten killed out there," She said, upset.

"But isn't this what we've been talking about? Using my powers for good? Helping people?" Penn asked.

"We talked about you using you powers to help stop other people like Chestnut. Meta-Humans. And besides him, we haven't seen any," Candace corrected the young ginger.

"People in this city need help, Candace, and I can help them," Penn said.

"We can help them," Boone tacked on.

"But... You... Will you say something, sir?" Candace asked, looking behind Penn and Boone. Turning around, Penn and Boone were met with Dr. Driscol rolling up in his wheelchair.

"I think what Dr. Flynn is trying to say, in her own incredibly angry way, is that we're just starting to understand your abilities, Mr. Zero, and I think you should take it easy until we get a good idea of what we're dealing with," He said in a sort of sagely tone.

"Dr. Driscol, while I'm glad that you care, I doubt that holding back is what made you what you are," Penn argued.

"If by that you mean a cripple and the most hated man in Middleburg, yes, a lack of restraint made me these things," Dr. Driscol countered, "Know your limits, Mr. Zero," He said before making his way out of the room.

As he left, Candace looked at Penn in the eyes as she said, "Don't expect me to patch you up every time you get scratched, Penn," She said before she left.

As she did, Boone walked up to Penn.

"Hey, Penn, I gotta ask. Are you doing okay, man? 'Cause earlier the suit was picking up some weird stuff from you. Like your vitals just spiked for a few seconds."

Penn thought back to the moment he felt faint, but then he remembered he got over it, so he thought nothing of it.

"Nope, feeling fine," He said.

Just then, a beeping came from the monitors. Boone rushed over to them and checked the readings.

"We got an armored truck being robbed. Fourth and Collins," He said.

"I'm on it," Penn said quickly, putting on his mask before rushing out the building in a blast of wind.

* * *

 **-Two Minutes Earlier-**

An armored truck was driving down the street as it passed by an alleyway. What the drivers failed to see was the man in a black outfit on a motorcycle with an assault rifle on his back in said alleyway as they passed. Once the truck passed the man by, a woman's voice came in on an earpiece in the man's ear.

"One hundred and eighty-two seconds, gentlemen," The voice said as the man nodded, putting his foot to the bike's gas pedal and revving it to life before exitting the alley and following the armored truck. As it sped down the road, the motorcycle was followed by a second motorcycle as the two followed closely behind the armored truck.

"Watch it, I think we got something," The man in the passenger seat said as the driver looked in the rear-view mirror to see the motorcycle on his side. Suddenly, the men on motorcycles pulled back as a tow truck going in reverse pulled up behind the truck. One of the men pulled the tow cable and hooked it to the underside of the armored truck as the tow truck began to pull up, lifting the back wheels off the road and taking away the truck's ability to move.

"Two-Eleven! I repeat! Two-Eleven! We are being robbed!" The driver said into the truck's radio as they came to a full stop.

The two men that were on the motorcycles got off and ran up to the driver and passenger doors, pulling them open and pulling out the drivers, knocking them to the ground. One was about to shoot the main driver, but a third man spoke up.

"Cool it. We only have one hundred and fifty-seven seconds left before the cops show up," Said a man wearing some kind of tank on his back and a sort of hose hooked up to it. He pointed the hose at the metal door on the back of the truck and opened fire, firing a concentrated blue liquid at the doors, which began to freeze over. After nearly a minute, the man ran at the door and body slammed into it, knocking the door off its hinges.

Just as the man was about to start picking away at the truck's contents, Penn showed up and began to take out the robbers in quick succession. He slammed the guy guarding the driver's door into the truck, tripped one who was standing by his motorcycle by sweeping his legs, and uppercut the one guarding the drivers.

Hearing the commotion outside, the man with the tank on his back came out the back of the van, only to be grabbed by the collar by Penn and thrown out of the van onto the pavement, losing his mask in the process. Before Penn could follow up, one of the drivers tried to make a run for it, but was shot in the shoulder by one of the robbers. Penn ran up to the robber and sucker punched him in the face before going over to the now injured driver.

"Penn, what's going on? What happened?" Boone asked over the comm link.

Before Penn could answer, he heard the sounds of engines revving. Turning around, Penn saw the group of robbers make their getaway on their motorcycles. Sighing, Penn decided to forget about them and deal with the more current problem.

"Where's the nearest hospital?" Penn asked.

"That would be St. Andrew's. Seven blocks north, two east," Boone responded.

"Call them up. Tell them they have an incoming gun shot wound victim," Penn said as he picked up the injured driver and ran to the hospital as fast as he possibly could.

* * *

 **Another two updates in as many days. I'm on a roll. This chapter was mostly build-up to what's to come. Hopefully, you guys can guess who the villain (Or possibly villains) of the week is/are. Hope to update again soon. Til then, see you guys later.**


	9. Going Rogue

**Welcome to the ninth chapter of Zero To A Hundred. Hope you all enjoy.**

* * *

 **-Half An Hour Later-**

"Alright, let's move it people! I want this place locked down to the end of the block!" Folsom ordered. In less than half an hour after the robbery, the police arrived and locked down the area.

While everything was going on outside, Chuck was looking at the back of the truck, inspecting the damage done to the steel doors. As he did, Joseph walked up behind him.

"The tow truck appears to be stolen. One of the drivers is in stable condition at Saint Andrew's, though no one seems to know exactly how he got there."

"Could you get anything out of the security cam footage?" Chuck asked, gesturing to the camera in the top-right corner of the van.

"Footage was wiped clean and the drive was stolen. Whoever pulled this off, they were pros," Joseph said.

Processing this new information, Chuck gave the back of the truck another once over before getting to his feet and walking out of the truck.

"Everything's still here," He said as he got out, "Including what I think they were after. The Eye Of Ozymandias. It was on its way to Middleburg Museum for an exhibition."

"Oh yeah. You know Karen's been on me to take her there for a date. I'm not much of a museum guy, but she can be pretty persistent," Joseph said.

"You should definitely go."

"Eh, maybe. I'll see how things go," Joseph said before leaving.

As he walked away, Captain Folsom walked up to Chuck with a look of annoyance on her face.

"We interviewed the witness and cornered off the area. All that's missing is Zero with his so-called 'forensics expertise'," She said.

"Sorry I'm late, Captain," Penn said, jogging up to the crime scene, "I was at the hospital visiting a friend," He lied.

"Well luckily nothing was stolen. Seems that someone interrupted the robbery before they could get what they wanted," Chuck said.

"Guard says there was three of them," Folsom said.

"Actually there was four," Penn interrupted.

"Excuse me?" Folsom asked.

"There were four robbers," Penn reiterated.

"How do you figure?" Folsom asked with a scrutinizing look.

"Well, uh," Penn stuttered for a second before he spoke again, "Well that's how many _I'd_ bring if I were pulling a job like this. I'd have two guys guarding the perimeter, one guy to guard the drivers, and it looks like one guy blasted this door with liquid nitrogen in order to break it off its hinges. So four guys."

"Thank you for your brilliant insight, Mr. Zero. Now hop to it!" Folsom ordered loudly before leaving Penn and Chuck alone.

"You know, for someone so fast, you're pretty slow on the improvising," Chuck joked as he looked at Penn, "When you were stopping these guys, did you see anything that could help us catch these guys?" He asked in a low voice.

"I did actually," Penn said in a near whisper, "When I was fighting them, one of them lost his mask. I saw his face," He said, getting a smile from Chuck. Suddenly, Penn felt an odd feeling wash over him. He felt faint. He began to feel dizzy and lightheaded. He had to lean against the truck for support.

"Penn, you doing alright?" Chuck asked, becoming worried for his nephew.

"Yeah, I'm fiiiii-" Penn said before he fell forward into Chuck's arms, passing out.

"Penn? Penn!" Chuck said with worry.

* * *

Penn woke up with a start to find himself lying in a hospital bed in S.T.A.R. Labs, the sound of heart-rate monitors beeping.

"Penn!" He heard a voice exclaimed. Looking in the direction of the voice, he found Boone, Candace, and Dr. Driscol standing in the doorway.

"Ugh, what happened?" Penn asked, rubbing his aching head.

"You passed out, dude. Your uncle dropped you off here for treatment. You've been out for about an hour." Boone said.

"Passed out? How?" Penn asked.

"We don't know. But hopefully we can figure that out," Candace said.

"And I got just the thing to help us figure that out," Boone said, helping Penn to his feet.

* * *

Lead to a different room of S.T.A.R. Labs, Penn found what looked to be a treadmill in front of a wall of boxes.

"Just a little padding. Just in case," Boone said.

Shrugging at this, Penn took his position on the treadmill as Boone went through a door to a control room full of monitors where Candace and Dr. Driscol sat and monitored Penn's vitals.

"You sure about this, Boone?" Penn asked as Boone turned on a speaker in the control room.

"Most home treadmills can only clock up to twelve miles per hour. This baby's been given the Boone treatment. Trust me, this thing can take your speed."

"If you say so," Penn responded as the treadmill started up and began to pick up speed. First three miles per hour. Then six. Twelve. Twenty-four and so on, until it reached over a hundred miles per hour.

"Heart rate, blood pressure, and nerve conduction are all normal," Candace said, looking at the readings on the monitor.

"For Penn that is," Dr. Driscol tacked on.

"Brainwave function is within normal limits," She added.

"Told you the treadmill could take it," Boone said with excitement.

"Candace," Dr. Driscol began, "Check his glucose levels."

Looking at the reading, Candace groaned, "Oh my god. Of course."

"Penn," Dr. Driscol said over the intercom, "We think we figured out why you keep-"

Penn then slipped off the treadmill and slammed into the wall of boxes, sending packing peanuts everywhere.

"Passing out," He finished.

* * *

"Ugh, you know this is starting to get old," Penn said as he woke up once again in a hospital bed, "I passed out again?" He asked.

"Yep, and luckily we now know why," Boone said.

"Complete metabolic failure brought on by acute hypoglycemia," Candace explained.

"Low blood sugar. So I'm not eating enough?" Penn asked.

"Exactly, dude," Boone said.

"So an IV bag and I'm good to go," Penn said like it was no big deal.

"Yeeeeaaaahhh, no," Boone said, pointing Penn in the direction of the IV stand, showing a lot of empty IV bags.

"Try forty," Dr. Driscol said with a smirk, "Guess you were thirsty."

"We need to fashion you a diet based on your new metabolism," Candace said.

"I ran a few calculations. Based on your new metabolic rate, you need to eat the equivalent of 850 tacos... Unless you include cheese and guac, which is a whole new set of calculations," Boone said as he began to run the numbers again on his tablet.

"You know if you're going for Mexican, I suggest Tito's on Bruckner Avenue," Came a voice from the door. Turning around, everyone found Chuck standing in the door with a black binder in his hands.

"Ah, Detective Zero, what brings you to our humble little laboratory?" Dr. Driscol asked.

"I came to check up on my nephew to see how he's holding up," He said as he walked in, "I need him in good shape. He's the key witness in the armored truck robbery earlier today."

"Sure thing, Chuck. I'm right as rain," Penn said, "What's that?" He asked, gesturing to the black binder in Chuck's hands.

"It's a book of mugshots of possible suspects. Figured you could look through them, see if you can spot our man."

"Sure, let me see," Penn said as Chuck passed him the binder.

Penn took the binder, opened it, and, using super speed, flipped through the mugshots in quick succession before stopping on the face that he had seen earlier that day.

"That's him. That's our man," He said, showing the photo to Chuck. The photo was of a youngish man in his mid-twenties with shaggy black hair in a typical eye-covering "emo style" hairdo, pale skin and several piercings in his ears.

"Ah, him again," Chuck said.

"You know him?" Penn asked.

"His name's Robert "Robbie" Valentino. He shows up every six months. Cases the joint for weeks, pulls the job, and gets away. He also works alongside his girlfriend. A Tambry DiCicco," Chuck said, flipping through the binder before coming to a photo of a girl with light brown skin and short purple hair with a pink highlight in front of her left ear.

"She's kinda hot," Boone said offhandedly.

"Well they won't be getting away this time. Not when The Streak is after him," Penn said proudly.

"Did you just refer to yourself in the third person?" Chuck asked.

"No, I referred to The Streak in the third person. Besides, I'm working on a new name. What do you guys think of The Fla-"

"Out of the question," Dr. Driscol interrupted, "This is a police matter, not a matter for a Meta-Human Speedster."

"Oh come on, Dr. Driscol, I thought we were cool about this," Penn said.

"We just found out about your super metabolism and your dizzy spells. You can leave this to the police, Mr. Zero."

"He's right, Penn, I can handle this punk," Chcuk said with a look of pride on his face.

Penn was silent for a moment before letting out a sigh, "Fine, I'll let you and the police handle him."

* * *

"There's a rumor going around Middleburg of a red blur tearing through the streets. What the hell is it, man?" A man said as Robbie and Tambry looked over the security footage from the armored truck. They slowed it down until it was going frame-by-frame.

"When I was a kid," Robbie began, "My grandfather took me to this diner called The Motor Car. The food was crap but the view was to die for. It was right across from the Middleburg Police Station. I still go there. Listen to their radios, record their response times. There are forty banks in Middleburg, all of them within sixty seconds of police response. That's the advantage of hitting a moving target. Once the armored car called 911 we had 182 seconds before any cop could be on the scene. No one could've gotten there fast enough... And yet, something did. And _you_ lost your cool. You know the rules. We don't shoot guards or cops, unless it's the only option. We don't need the heat."

"The heat?" The man asked annoyed, walking up to Robbie, "What do you think the blur is, Valentino?" He asked, getting a blank stare from both Robbie and Tambry, "You're right. Screw this and screw you. I'm out," He said, turning around and leaving.

Before he made it two feet however, he was shot in the back by Tambry, who was holding a pistol in her right hand.

"Well, if you're out, you're out," Tambry said nonchalantly as she and Robbie looked back at the security footage.

"This blur..." Robbie began, "... is a man," He said as a evil smile grew on his lips, "We're going to have to up our game."

* * *

 **Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. That's right, Robbie and Tambry are the villains of the week. But who are they? Here's a hint: They put the "Rogue" in "Rogues Gallery". Don't forget to leave a review. Until next time, I will see you guys later!**


	10. A Reunion Over Coffee

**This chapter is mostly a fluff piece to help build-up Penn and Sashi's relationship while also establishing her role in this story. This is a Pennashi fic after all. Anyway, hope you all enjoy this chapter and I will see you at the bottom of the page.**

* * *

It had been a busy day for Sashi. Orders were taken, coffee was made, and baked goods were... baked. Needless to say the day was tiring. What was worse was the manager was leaving her alone and having her clean up the place while he went off and did who knows what. As she was wiping down a table, she heard a knock at the door of the shop. Turning around, she was surprised to find Penn standing outside with a smile on his face.

He gave a small wave to Sashi and she did too. He then pointed at the locked door.

"Oh!" She said, running up to the door and unlocking it, letting the redhead in.

"Yeah, the door was... locked," Penn said awkwardly as he came inside.

"Sorry, I was closing up. But hey, glad to see you again. Been a couple days," She responded with almost as much awkwardness.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Been busy with police work and stuff."

An awkward silence filled thew air. The tension was so thick, you could cut it like butter.

"So... you're here alone?" Penn asked.

"Yeah, my dumb boss left me to close up shop. Claimed he had a 'hot date' tonight, though I personally think he's just at home ogling the girls in a Sears catalog," Sashi said with a smirk, getting a chuckle out of her redheaded friend.

"There's the old Sashi Kobayashi wit that I've missed," Penn said.

"Is that the only thing you missed about me?" She asked with a playful smile.

"Well one thing I definitely don't miss are those bursts of violence you used to have. At least when I was on the receiving end," He replied getting a laugh out of the Japanese girl.

"Yeah, sorry about that," She said.

"Nah, it's not your fault," He said dismissively.

"Ye~ah, kinda was," Sashi replied.

"Yeah, you're right, it was kind of your fault. But it was a good fault, one that I liked about you."

This made Sashi blush, but Penn didn't notice it.

"So you need any help with closing up shop?" Penn asked.

"Really? You wanna help?" Sashi asked back, a bit surprised by his offer.

"Sure, I owe you for all those times you saved my butt. Why not start repaying that debt?" Penn said with a smile as he grabbed the towel from Sashi's shoulder and began wiping down a table. Sashi smiled at this as she went and got another towel and got to work.

Soon they were down to one table left to pipe down. Just as Penn was about to start cleaning it, Sashi stopped him.

"What up, Sash?" He asked, somewhat confused.

"Before you clean that down... I was thinking..." She was saying, kinda fumbling over her words, "... There's some pastries in the case, you want to eat them with me before they go stale?" She asked with an awkward smile.

Penn couldn't help but smile at her offer, "I'd love to. I'm starving," He said.

* * *

After about ten or fifteen minutes, Penn and Sashi sat at the table, eating the baked goods and laughing at a joke that Penn was telling.

"And so the Scotsman says: 'What do you think of that you plucky-faced hinoot?'" He said, causing Sashi and himself to break into a fit of laughter.

"Oh man, I needed a good laugh," Sashi said with a smile. She then looked at the table with a surprised look, "Whoa, you weren't joking when you said you were starving."

So far, Penn had eaten three cinnamon rolls, two scones, four giant cookies, and an apple turnover. Penn wiped his mouth with a napkin and smiled.

"Yeah, sorry about that," He said.

"Eh, no problem. It was either eat them or throw them out," She said dismissively, "So anything else been going on with you?"

"Oh yeah. I forgot to mention this the other day, but I saw Boone," He said, surprising the girl.

"You saw Boone? Holy crap, PZ, why didn't you tell me?! We haven't seen him since after high school! How's he been? What's he doing?" She asked.

"Well he's actually working at S.T.A.R. Labs."

"S.T.A.R. Labs? I thought that place was labeled as a biohazard?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It kinda was, but he's actually helping to make it better. He's working on projects that'll help out the city."

"Him trying to help people... I guess you rubbed off on him, PZ."

"But enough about me, what about you, Sash? You've been missing for years. Where've you been?" Penn asked.

"I've been traveling. Seeing new places, you know?"

"Sure, that's not vague or anything," Penn said with a roll of his eyes and a smirk, getting a light punch to the shoulder from the girl.

"Still the smart ass," She said with a smirk.

"Okay, so the 'where you've been' thing is a dead end. What about you can I ask where I get a straight answer?" Penn asked.

"Well I can tell you that I won't be working here for very long," She said confidently.

"Really? Do tell," He asked, mimicking a gossiping teenager.

"Well I'm actually working part-time at the Gazette. I've been submitting articles about the hero of Middleburg."

This made Penn smile a bit, knowing who she was talking about.

"Ah, you must mean The Streak," He said.

"What?" Sashi asked, confusing Penn, "Who's the Streak?"

"The hero that's been going around the city and saving people. You know? The Red Blur? He helped people out of a burning building and stopped an armored car robbery just today."

"Sorry, never heard of him," She said with a shrug.

"Well who are you talking about?" Penn asked.

"I'm talking about the Black Canary," She said proudly.

"Who's that?" Penn asked, confused.

"Well, according to witnesses, the Black Canary is a blonde-haired woman in her early twenties, wearing an all-black outfit and carrying two metal batons that she uses to beat up criminals. She seems to mostly appear at night and has mostly helped out women being mugged."

"Has anyone seen her face?"

"No, she apparently wears a domino mask that covers the upper-half of her face."

"Well I bet she doesn't have powers like the Streak does," Penn said.

"Maybe not, but she fights hard and she fights with skill, so I think that more than makes up for a lack of powers," Sashi said.

"'Fights hard and with skill.' Sounds like a girl after your own heart, huh, Sash?" He said with a smirk.

"Nah, someone's stolen my heart a long time ago," She said back, hiding a smirk.

"Oh really? And who would that be?" He asked, getting up and walking up to Sashi.

"Wouldn't you like to know," She said as they were inches away from one another.

"I would like to know," He said as their faces approached each other.

"Well you're about to find out," She whispered their faces an inch away from each other.

Just then, both their phones started ringing in their pockets, completely ruining the moment. They stepped back from one another and took out their phones. Penn looked at who was calling.

"It's Boone. Sorry, Sash, gotta take this," He said apologetically.

"Yeah, I gotta take this too. It's the editor of Gazette," She said as they both put their respective cell phones to their ears.

"This better be good, Boone. I was kinda in the middle of something," Penn said, sounding incredibly irritated.

"Penn, I just got an alert from S.T.A.R. labs. Someone just broke in. I don't know who though," Boone said on the other end of the line, sounding worried.

"Alright, I'm on it. I'll be there in a flash," Penn said as he hung up and replaced the phone back in his pocket as Sashi did the same.

"I gotta go," They said in unison.

"Boone needs my help with something at his place."

"And the editor needs me to come in and deal with some stuff."

"Maybe we can continue this another time?" Penn asked.

"I'd like that a lot, PZ," She said with a smile as they both headed out the door. After Sashi had left in the opposite direction and Penn retreated into an alleyway. He steeled himself before getting into a running position and blasting forward at super speed, heading for S.T.A.R. Labs and whatever was waiting for him.

* * *

 **And that is the TENTH CHAPTER everyone! We're up to double digits now. What lies in store for our hero? Who is this "Black Canary" that Sashi's talking about? And why is she stealing Penn's spotlight? Anyway, hope you all loved this chapter. Remember to leave a favorite and a review and I will see you guys later.**


	11. Cold Shoulder

**Welcome one and all to the eleventh chapter of Zero To A Hundred! I apologize deeply for the long wait as I've been busy with other projects and life. However, I now have oodles of time on my hands, so I'll try to be more productive with my writing. With all that said and done, on with the story!**

* * *

 **-Five Minutes Earlier-**

All was quiet in the hallways of S.T.A.R. Labs. The only noise that could be heard at that moment was the sound of keys being hit on a computer keyboard belonging to Dr. Driscol as he typed away on a report on what's been going on the past few days. He was just finishing up when, all of a sudden, the alarms started blaring and red lights started flashing. Saving his work quickly, he closed his typing program and opened the security cam feed. To his surprise, the cause of the break-in was none other than Robbie and Tambry, the people that Chuck had told the team about earlier that day.

"This bodes poorly," Dr. Driscol said to himself as he turned his wheelchair around and made for the hallway.

Robbie and Tambry made their way down the hallways of S.T.A.R. Labs before coming to a large room filled with large boxes and containers.

"I think we may have hit the jackpot, Pumpkin," Tambry said with a smile as they entered the room.

"You may be right, Honey Bunny," Robbie replied before the two of them started practically ransacking the room, opening containers to see if anything was useful or could come in handy.

After about thirty seconds of opening and turning over containers, Tambry found one box that caught her eye. It was a large container made of metal that was marked as "Dangerous". Opening the container, Tambry found what looked to be a pair of guns. One was a very dark blue color and the other was black with a gold finish on it.

"Oh Robbie, look what I found!" said Tambry in a dreamy voice with a wide smile on her face.

Robbie quickly made his way to his girl's side and looked at the guns. A smile crept on his face as he held up the dark blue gun in his hand.

"Oh, yeah." said Robbie in a whisper as he aimed the gun around

"We are going to sail smoothly from here on out." said Tambry looking over the second gun

Suddenly a flash of yellow lightning crossed Tambry's line of sight followed by a gust of wind.

"You know that you shouldn't be here, right." said Penn wearing his red hero outfit.

The couple of robbers saw the red clad vigilante and made a run for it. Penn was about to follow them when Dr. Driscol came into the room. Spotting their chance, Robbie pulled out a pistol from his jacket and aimed it at the man in the wheelchair.

Time slowed down as Penn made a quick choice and rushed over to Dr. Driscol and got him out of the line of fire as the bullet put a hole in the back of the wheelchair. Penn ran through the halls and into one of the Labs' rooms as he set Dr. Driscol down in one of the office chairs, safe from harm.

"You alright, Doc?" asked Penn.

"Yes. Just go, Penn. You have to stop them." said Dr. Driscol as Penn went back to the last point of contact with the thieves.

Penn looked all over the place but then heard the front doors to the building open and shut. Penn then took up in pursuit of the criminals at top speed.

He quickly made it to the front of the building to see Tambry and Robbie make a break for a getaway van. Turning around, Robby saw the scarlet speedster about thirty feet from them. He took his pistol out again and quickly aimed it at Penn but quickly felt a sharp pain in his hand as his pistol was knocked out of it by an unknown object, followed by a metal clang. Looking down, Penn, Robbie, and Tambry saw what looked to be a metal baton on the ground next to Robbie's gun.

They all turned to the opposite side where the metal baton had come from and spotted a blond haired woman wearing a black suit and a black domino mask.

Penn was awestruck at the sight of the beautiful woman looking down on them.

"Drop down your weapons and I won't turn your bones into dust." said the masked woman

"Yeah, you got it." said Tambry pulling out her own gun and firing a shot at the mysterious woman

Penn ran towards the mysterious woman, but the woman had already jumped out of the way of the bullet. She then charged at the robbers with her second metal baton.

Penn saw this and immediately joined in the fight.

Seeing that the battle would be one sided, Robbie pulled out the dark blue gun that they had stolen from STAR Labs and fired it at both Penn and his mysterious new ally.

However, the attack was not any form of projectile that Penn had ever seen, instead it was an odd looking icy blue beam. Fearing that the beam could hurt him or his ally, Penn quickly grabbed her and dodged out of the way.

The blue beam struck the ground and it began creating a large wall of ice. Robbie moved the gun in an arc form, creating a large wall that separated the two heroes from the getaway car and the thieves.

"Let's go, baby." said Tambry, getting in the van and turning on the ignition.

Robbie jumped in the car as it took off, leaving the heroes behind.

Back with Penn and his mysterious ally, things were not so smooth.

"Get off of me, you idiot!" said the mysterious girl before punching Penn in the chest, knocking him back.

"Hey, I was just trying to help. Besides if it hadn't been for me you'd be an ice sculpture, Miss..." began Penn, checking out the young woman before him.

"Canary. Black Canary." said the girl, not looking at Penn as she looked in the direction the van had driven off.

"Hey, I've heard of you. You're a hero like me. The guys are gonna be so psyched." said Penn with a small laugh.

As Penn was thinking of what to say next his comm. link turned on.

"Penn, do you read me?" asked Dr. Driscol over the line.

"Yeah, loud and clear, Doc." said Penn.

"What happened with our uninvited guests? Are they in custody?" asked Driscol with slight worry in his voice.

"No, they got away with some form of ice ray gun they stole. But the good news is that I have a new friend to help us," said Penn as he turned to look at Black Canary only to find that he was now alone in the parking lot.

"Wow, she just left. That's rude," said Penn offhandedly as he sped to the metal baton on the ground and picked it up.

"Penn, get back to the lab, and you better call your friend Boone too. He's got a lot to explain," said Driscol over the radio

"Roger, Doc," said Penn as he rushed back.


End file.
